Kitchen Garden Forum

The clocks have gone back, it's almost a ground frost here this morning and the days are getting short.
I always see this as a new beginning as much as the spring. The polytunnel is now totally planted out with winter/spring crops: lettuce, bunching onions, parsley and coriander, chicory and endive, cabbage and kale, rocket and claytonia. New strawberry runners are potted up and space is ready for outside pots to go in over winter.
I'd think it was sitting back feet-up time if the rest of the garden wasn't so much in need of tidying up

Had to scrape the car windscreen a couple of minutes ago, so a sure sign of things to come.

Nice and bright though.

Yep, bit of frost down by the stream this morning, dogs love it when the weather is still and cold. The noses go down and they're following all the night time trails.

Cleared the last of the tubs of summer flowers yesterday, they were still looking quite good, and daffs & tulips have gone in.

The house sits up the pointy end of a long triangle of ground and I usually start at the bottom and work up. This year I started clearing the garden from the pointy end down...just for a change! Got as far as the house and it's surrounding beds, onwards and downwards as they say.

Leaves are coming off the yellow stemmed willow and the dogwood and the stems are coming into their own, look great in the lower sun in the late afternoon.

MW

It must be getting 'back-endish' because I put all my summer T-shirts into the washer this morning ( 8 of them!) and let them flutter dry in the wind and sunshine this afternoon. Alas, it's raining again now.

The garlics are poking through the surface and the overwintering onions are about 3 inches high!

I've done stuff I wouldn't have dreamt of doing until recently, sown sweet peas, and they sprouted. I hope I can keep them alive.

Broad beans, (Possibly a mistake) cabbages, garlic and some winter salads in the beds with fleece covers. Last years onion bed is full of Sweet William, I need to deal with the white-rot in that bed.

Just as well i'm still procrastinating over the greenhouse project, we had unexpected vehicle repair bills again and of-course all our winter fuel has to paid for in advance. Wood pile is full, oil tank is full so just the coal-product bunkers to fill.

My garlic are also poking through which is worrying as I haven't actually planted any yet...

10 ton of logs stacked last week, 5 ton still left in store no1 from April. No oil, no coal, just run on wood now. Bit heavy on the pocket this end of the year but very satisfying when you know that you've got a good 9-12 months worth on the property and paid for. Looks daunting when the guy rocks up with a tipping grain trailer full of logs! But boy, can he get that through a gateway with precision, in reverse...

A couple of my chicken are still doing a late moult and looking somewhat tatty and miserable in the wet weather.

MW

Been working over the allotment this morning, picking large amounts of veg.
A touch coldin the wind, but nice and bright, and the ground is drying on top.

Very pleased with my celeriac, it really has grown to a very decent size, and yes, i know i have just been lucky....

Sore throat this mornimg from encouraging England Rugby Team at Twickenham yesterday, Englad 2 0 Australia 13.
Prince Harry was there and tue train bound crowds had the full vip escort thing drive through them taking him away, Met Police motorbikes using whistles and voice to clear a path for the armoured Jaguar and Land Rover Discovery.

The Wiod Harvest tree pack I ordered from the Woodland Trust, on behalf of my allotment society, arrived on Friday. So today I have 105 whips to sort, plant and pass on for planting on other sites.

Plus, my overwintering onion sets and garlic to plant, balancing on planks to save the clay I think.

Would love to get more digging done but I suspect it'll be too sticky.

First ground frost of the season, very pretty and white everywhere in the morning sunshine with the trees looking good. Not an air frost, 0.3°C on the weather station. Think I'll pick the last of the fruit today; Bramley, Granny Smith, Ashmead's Kernel, Idared and Black Worcester Pears.

Rain, rain and more rain here. Chucking it down all night and only just stopped.

Looks full of it though

Sorry about that, hope you are mending well, it'll stop you over doing it!
These may or may not cheer you up.

Circa 40 Hazel, Crabapple and Dogrose planted along the north fence, rest passed on for hedging another site.

100 Shakespeare over-wintering onion sets and 21 Wight garlic cloves planted out after weeding a sticky patch.

Geoff wrote:Sorry about that, hope you are mending well, it'll stop you over doing it!
These may or may not cheer you up.

IMG_2955_RR.jpg

IMG_2956_RR.jpg

What a lovely view. Sunshine here now as well, but far too wet to do anything even if I could get to the allotment.
I shall just rest up and think about what I could have done

I'm glad you are on the mend Jack and not over doing it.

Beautiful day here after crispy white morning. Had to break ice on bird bath.

The frost has spurred me on to put the bubble plastic up in the greenhouse.
I section a third of it off and line it all with strong large bubble plastic sheets so I don't have to heat the whole lot. I've been thinking about not heating it at all even to just keep it above freezing, but I'm quite attached to some of the more tender plants which probably wouldn't survive.

No frost here but down to 10 degrees and a lovely day. Photo is of our paddock and the proposed orchard and photo of the plants is the mint roots Geoff gave me and my success with the French tarragon though I think I messed up with that mint plant I have that grows like lavender, it won't throw new growth from the root like the other mints. I cut it to two inches from the soil and it's sulking. The tarragon I cut right to the root and ina few cases I just planted root. Look what I got.